by Brian Caldersmith – – –
My friend John Whitmore came to Australia several times to participate in the Tasman Revival meetings at Eastern Creek. His very successful racing career included sharing the Border Reivers Lotus Elite with Jim Clark at Le Mans, winning both the British and European Touring Car Championships and sharing the Alan Mann Ford GT40 driving and development programme with Frank Gardner at Le Mans.
I enticed him out the first time by suggesting that he share my Elite and sent this image of the “pit crew” to inspire his decision. He immediately organised a speaking tour with his company, and all was set. John was acknowledged as the pioneer in the field of business coaching and a leader in the field.
We shared my car between racing and regularity events at the first meeting, but that meant I never got to race with him. So, two years later at the next Tasman, I organised another Elite for him to race, which meant we could run together. Great stuff. I learned a lot in our many discussions about tyre pressures and various techniques.
Sir John was the Baronet of Orsett in Essex, and he used to fly his plane in and out of the grounds of Orsett House. He never really enjoyed the landed gentry lifestyle, so sold the estate to a friend, and only ever used the title for business purposes. He was a relaxed, everyday sort of a guy – and offered to sell me his Knighthood one evening….
At one of the Club Lotus meetings in the UK near Bath, John was the guest speaker, and we were both scheduled to see Ian Scott-Watson at Dunns in Scotland the next day, which involved a personal tour of the Jim Clark Museum and dinner that night. I had deliberately booked into the Allanton Inn because it was the old meeting place of the Border Reivers Club and we retired there for the meal. I had known Ian for some time, and as Jim Clark’s mentor and team manager for the Clark/Whitmore/Border Reivers entry at Le Mans, the two of them guaranteed that I experienced one of those memorable events in life. The stories that evening were widespread and extensive. I wish I had recorded it all (except many of them were not reproduceable).
Actually, there is one I can relate, because it has since been documented in Ian’s book.
The “Jim & John Elite” was 20 seconds quicker than all the other Elites at Le Mans, but they didn’t find until after the race that their rev counter was reading 500 rpm too low. They had run the 24 hours 500 rpm over the limit! However, that resulted in another problem. The extra revs had caused a vibration that broke the armature shafts in the starter motor. The starter motor died after a fuel stop – and you were only allowed to change parts that had been carried on the car. There was an official at each garage to ensure compliance.
After removing it, they “mistakenly” dropped it over the back of the bench and picked up a replacement one for installation. At dawn it happened again and this time the charade was to drop the hot starter into a bucket of soapy water and pull out the replacement. The French official patted Ian on the back and said “vairy goot acteeng”. Entente Cordiale ensured that the French were not going to penalise a Scottish team!
Sadly, Ian died in 2023.
Early on, John had raced the Lotus Elite of Chris Barber, the jazz band leader. They were good friends, but Chris could never get near John’s times, so used him as a “works driver”.
I met Chris when his band toured Australia, and he came home for a BBQ one day after I offered him a drive in my Elite. It was a wonderful afternoon, and we recreated the original photo from the Lotus book that showed him picking up his original car when production first began. After taking his wife Kate for a 20-minute drive in my car he returned with a big grin and thoughts of buying back his old car.
It was only after they returned that I mentioned mine wasn’t road registered…….
John and Chris had not met for some 40 years, so on a trip to the UK I organised a reunion dinner. It needed to be outside London so that Chris could meet us on his journey home after flying in from a band tour in Germany, and Warren King could drive across from Norwich. John and I jumped on a train to get there. Complicated, but it worked successfully, and a very pleasant evening resulted with some wonderful tales.
At the first Tasman Revival I re-introduced John to Frank Gardner after many years and it was great to see the camaraderie. They reminisced well into the afternoon.
One occasion, when John was staying with us, Frank rang up, “Have you got that Pommie bloke with you?” “Yes.” “Are you going to watch the Grand Prix?” “Yes”. “Do you have a big screen?” “Well, sort of….” “Right, I’m coming around”. That resulted in another crazy afternoon. I never did watch much of that race.
The last time John was with us, I said that we needed to go to the shopping mall to get some stuff for dinner.
I did not tell him that there was also a major art show on and that I had entered his portrait in it. So, we jumped in the car and went to get some food.
On arrival, I suggested we have a quick look at the art and guided him down the rows. He froze when he saw his portrait.
I presented it to him after the show. Sadly, we lost John in 2017.
